“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller
It's not exactly the way Beaver Cleaver would spend time with his friends--you know, killing, stealing, punching, slashing, crashing--all those everyday Playstation past times. But Beaver had his problems too. There was more than one occasion I recall Beaver having to confess bad behavior to his father. Bad behavior, however, has taken on an interesting …
Continue reading "Sitting around killing your friends: Just another day on Playstation"
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 02:16PM Last night after I finished speaking with a group of parents, a mom came up and began talking with me about issues related to Myspace. She had a great idea I wanted to share with you. One of my greatest concerns with the way kids use technology like IM …
Continue reading "Self-expression: Moving off of the internet and onto a real-life journal"
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 01:15PM It's the ultimate way to tell someone off. You send them a nasty text, then turn off your phone. That'll show them! You think thats just a snotty way immature middle school students use cell phones? Guess again. My college students say thats how many of their friends solve …
Continue reading "Flaming Text Messages: Thumb-centered Conflict Management"
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 04:19PM "Are you kidding!? Everyone would think we were in love or something!" That's the response I got when I asked a group of middle school girls why they don't talk to guys in their class. The interesting part was that they had each just confessed to IMing those same …
Continue reading "Talking to the opposite sex just got easier."
Friday, November 16, 2007 at 10:45AM One great way to begin establishing guidelines with your kids about how to best use their technology is to sit down and come up with your own "netiquette" list. Ask your child about the "do's" and the "dont's" of e-mailing, IMing and Facebooking. Use their list as a set …
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 05:10PM I don't know what it's like in your house, but here it is clear. The holidays are over and school is back and my daughter has once again situated herself in front of the computer. Most of the time she is doing homework--I think. She does her homework at …
Continue reading "Texting and Homework: Does multitasking help or hurt?"
Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 10:16AM My kids are always bugging me. They can never reach me on my cell phone because it is either uncharged, misplaced, muted, or otherwise misappropriated. Don't get me wrong--I like having the phone for "just in case". You know, just in case I get a flat tire, just in …
Check out this study that was recently conducted on the impact of technology on teen writing. The Stanford researcher who conducted the study says that our kids are not only not getting worse, she posits that we are actually entering into a literacy revolution. Our kids write more today than they ever have in history. …
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at 11:25AM We've logged on. We've created a profile. We've found our kids' site. So now what? Michelle Slatalla has written a very fun article in the NYTimes entitled "OMG! Mymom joined Facebook!" (see reference cite to access the article) where she approaches the issue of teenage privacy. It's quite a …
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 10:20AM As if hoardes of beanie babies lying all over the house and a laughing Elmo doll rolling on the floor and little expired tomagachi keychains sitting in a pile weren't enough, we now have a new toy that has hit the "have to have" list. Its a Webkinz. And …
Continue reading "Webkinz: A pre-schooler’s first online steps?"
Peggy Kendall 